I critique Turning Point USA’s Young Women’s Leadership Summit decision to include new convert Nala Ray on their speaker panel. I warn that new converts like Ray should not be put into leadership/authority roles too soon, emphasizing the need for care and nurturing in a less hectic environment. New converts, famous or not, should be exhorted to settle into a church pew during their faith journey.
I discuss Psalm 1, which contrasts the righteous with the wicked who are likened to chaff, which is worthless and destined for destruction. Through biblical references, chaff represents unrepentant sinners who reject God and face eternal punishment. The discussion emphasizes grace and the importance of salvation through Jesus, reminding readers of their own past.
One of my most fervent prayers is that your/my church is not filled with comfortable unbelievers. The odds are though, that at least some in the church believe they are saved but are not. The Bible says,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Artist: Boris Sajtinac
Today is the day we should…
...draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)
Here is a resource for you to test your faith and find assurance
Is It Real?– 11 Biblical Tests of Genuine Salvation 1 John; 1 John 5:1; John 10: 10; 1 Peter 5:10-
Throughout the letter is a series of tests to determine whether you possess eternal life. If you don’t pass these tests, you’ll know where you stand and what you need to do. If you do, you’ll have reason to enjoy your eternal salvation with great assurance.
God gave us His Spirit to indwell us as the guarantee of our salvation and of our future eternity with Jesus. Do you have the Spirit? Are you sure? Here are further resources addressing the question-
This section of verses that show Jesus’ life are focused on His attributes. In His earthly ministry we’ve seen Him as servant, teacher, shepherd, intercessor, and healer. We then looked at His attributes of omniscience, His authority, and now His sinlessness.
He came from glory where righteousness reigns. He descended to an earth that’s cursed where every single human is depraved, thoroughly drenched with a sin nature. He lived among us, sinlessly and perfectly fulfilling the Father’s commands for righteous living. He did this at every moment in every way. Not one blot, not one thought, not one act of anything less than perfection.
For this, He was reviled, mocked, hated, and killed.
In what sense did Jesus become “sin on our behalf”? Does that phrase mean that Jesus literally became a sinner on the cross? …
Based on the above passages, we can safely determine what 2 Corinthians 5:21 does not mean. It cannot mean that Jesus became unrighteous, or that He became a sinner, or that He took on a sin nature, or that He literally embodied sin. … So, then what does it mean? This brings us to our third point. … 3. The best way to understand Paul’s statement (that Jesus became sin on our behalf) is in terms of imputation. Our sin was imputed to Christ, such that He became a substitutionary sacrifice or sin offering for all who would believe in Him.
On the cross, Jesus took our sin upon Himself and purchased our salvation. We have “been justified by his blood” (Romans 5:9), and part of that justification is an imputation of His own righteousness. Paul puts it this way: “For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus is righteous by virtue of His very nature—He is the Son of God. By God’s grace, “through faith in Jesus Christ,” that righteousness is given “to all who believe” (Romans 3:22). That’s imputation: the giving of Christ’s righteousness to sinners.
Ligonier: Jesus’ Sinless Life Jesus lived a representative life. Jesus lived a sinless life, and it was, therefore, a life of representative sinlessness. Our Lord’s obedience stands in the place of His people’s sin. His law-keeping is counted as the law-keeping of those who have faith in Him.
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Thirty Days of Jesus Series-
Introduction/Background
Prophecies:
Day 1: The Virgin shall conceive Day 2: A shoot from Jesse Day 3: God sent His Son in the fullness of time Day 4: Marry her, she will bear a Son
Birth & Early Life-
Day 5: The Babe has arrived! Day 6: The Glory of Jesus Day 7: Magi seek the Child Day 8: The Magi Offer gifts & worship Day 9: The Child Grew Day 10- the Boy Jesus at the Temple Day 11: He was Obedient
The Second Person of the Trinity-
Day 12: The Son! Day 13: God is pleased with His Son Day 14: Propitiation Day 15: The Gift of Eternal Life Day 16: Kingdom of Darkness to Light Day 17: Jesus’ Preeminence Day 18: The Highest King Day 19: He emptied Himself Day 20: Jesus as The Teacher Day 21: The Good Shepherd Day 22: The Intercessor Day 23: The Compassionate Healer
Attributes
Day 24: Jesus’ Omniscience Day 25: Jesus’ Authority
Propitiation. A hard word to pronounce…and a hard word to understand, but we have to try, since the verse says this is the reason God sent His son.
An offering that turns away the wrath of God directed against sin. According to the NT, God has provided the offering that removes the divine wrath, for in love the Father sent the Son to be the propitiation (or atoning sacrifice) for human sin (1 John 4:10). Source: Pocket dictionary of theological terms (1996).
by which it becomes consistent with his character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders it consistent for him to exercise his love towards sinners. In Easton’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary. (1893)
The Easton’s definition uses the word ‘consistent’. God is able to do anything but it would not be consistent with His holy character to abandon his promise to punish wrongdoers for their sin. He could turn away His wrath by deciding to do so, but it would destroy His perfectly just nature to be inconsistent. No, God is consistent, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8). “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed“. (Malachi 3:6).
So He sent His Son to be that sacrifice and absorb God’s wrath for our sins, though Christ was sinless.
Further Reading
GotQuestions: What is Propitiation? The word propitiation carries the basic idea of appeasement or satisfaction, specifically toward God. Propitiation is a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and being reconciled to him.
Ligonier Ministries: What Do Expiation and Propitiation Mean? Let’s think about what these words mean, then, beginning with the word expiation. The prefix ex means “out of” or “from,” so expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. In biblical terms, it has to do with taking away guilt through the payment of a penalty or the offering of an atonement. By contrast, propitiation has to do with the object of the expiation.
Bible Hub Topical Bible- Propitiation That by which God is rendered propitious, i.e., by which it becomes consistent with his character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders it consistent for him to execise his love towards sinners.
On the Mount of Olives, Jesus sat with his disciples and answered their questions about the end of the age and the signs of His second coming. He answered in specific detail in Matthew 24 and 25, also Mark 13 and Luke 21. It is the longest answer He gave to any question the disciples asked.
The verses in Mt 24:3-6 read: “Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.“
These signs are warnings to allow the Spirit to give birth to the faith within. A parallel reference to Matthew 24:6 is given as Romans 10:17: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
He speaks through His word (the Bible) and He shows himself through the creation.
I am reminded of Paul’s warning in Romans 1:18, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,”
They suppress the truth. What is that truth? That truth is that God exists, He created everything, thus, He is Authority over the earth and its inhabitants, and as the Authority and Creator, He will judge our lives. The other truth is, that we are ALL sinners due wrath from God. They suppress that!
When I saw the devastation in TN, North Carolina, and southern Georgia, it shocked me. Whole towns wiped away. Cities like Asheville and Augusta, extremely damaged. You’ve seen the pictures and video. Shocking and heartbreaking.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matthew 3:7)
There is wrath to come.
Jesus said in His Olivet Discourse as to the end of the end of days, it will be the worst time on earth there ever was or ever will be. Famine, earthquakes. Never mind towns, whole islands will flee away. Hawaii- gone. Malta, gone, Elba, gone England, gone. Floods, tsunamis, volcanoes. It will be like the North Carolina floods happening but also everywhere else all the disasters are happening too! At once, and/or in rapid succession. Just as one devastation happens, another occurs.
The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
In fact, the purpose not only is to demonstrate God’s wrath for sin and to punish Israel, but to UNcreate the earth before God restores it to its near-pre-Eden condition and then remake it totally. The recent hurricane was monstrous in size and its path of devastation was horrendous. The Tribulation will be worse.
Please listen to what Jesus is telling us in His word. He loves the world. He wants your sins to be forgiven so He may embrace you as friend on Judgment Day (1 Timothy 2:4), and not cast you alive into the Lake of Fire as an enemy. The difference between friend of God and enemy of God is a personal recognition of our own sins, and repenting and asking Jesus to forgive them. He is already the Lord of your life- this life AND the next one. Repenting makes Him your Savior. Saving from what? The wrath.
You do NOT want to be here during the coming Tribulation. Repent while it is still day. Before you are hardened in your sin, before you draw your last breath. Jesus forgives and He saves!
Elon Musk tweeted something that made me stop and think. And also made me sad.
Elon Musk, the wealthiest person on planet Earth, is a business magnate and investor, says Wikipedia. He is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CTO of Twitter (now named ‘X’) founder of the Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and president of the philanthropic Musk Foundation. He has been married and divorced 3 times (twice to the same woman) and also has/had a long-time partner. He has 10 children.
All this to say that Elon Musk is brilliant, accomplished, noteworthy, desirable, famous, feted; truly a person who has been through almost all of King Solomon’s Ecclesiastes levels. Except one: Musk has not realized it’s all in vain.
He seems to be searching, to be open, to be close. But we know that ‘close’ won’t deliver a person from the wrath of God. It won’t solve the eternal questions all pagans know but suppress in their unrighteousness. (Romans 1:18).
What he tweeted was this:
The Fermi Paradox, named for Italian-American Enrico Fermi, notes the “discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence.” You can learn more about the Fermi Paradox, here.
I was saddened to see that tweet, because within it is the eternal hopelessness of a pagan heart. In it contains all the curiosity about the universe with no satisfying answer. Conceiving of a vast universe with humankind as the only meager flickering candle against all that inky darkness is a mind-numbing thought. Craving an answer to it all but having none is a grief to a wondering mind.
Christians know the heart-warning thought- that the All-Powerful Yahweh created man uniquely, lovingly, and specifically in order to commune with Him. Knowing the reason for our existence, chiefly to glorify God for who He is and enjoy Him forever settles the eternal hopelessness and angst we all feel, but for the unsaved soul, is too immeasurable to ponder for long. The boundless well of the abyss is terrifying to contemplate.
Though, for some, like Musk, whose business IS the stars, the unformed thought behind his thought is equally terrifying. What if there IS another race of beings out there? How did THEY come to be? What are THEIR intentions? Does knowing another race is out there salve the loneliness felt in the limitless black? Do THEY have souls? And it doesn’t solve the basic question: did an Intelligence create them? And if so, why?
Our sins keep us from knowing these answers. Sin is the abyss that wedges between our soul and all the solutions to these seemingly thorny problems. The Great Chasm is not the vast universe, but the place between sin and repentance. If we repent of our sins (sin is anything we think, say, or do that is against God, and we are ALL sinners) and believe in Jesus Christ, we will be saved.
The unfathomable question is not ‘are there others out there?’ but “Why would God solve our sin problem by sending His infinite Son to incarnate into finite flesh, live perfectly, die an excruciating death on the cross, be buried, and rise to life again, ascending to the pleased Father, on behalf of man? For the ones He intends to save? Why?
The question ‘are there aliens out there?” is not the eternal question. (And the answer is yes, there are aliens, they are called holy and unholy angels, extra terrestrials of vast power and intelligence who visit earth to interfere with God’s works or to execute God’s works). The eternal question is, “How may I be saved?”
For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23. Photo by Mia Golic on Unsplash
Before I was saved, I used to like that hymn “Amazing Grace”. Go figure. Usually only at Christmas or Easter services I was dragged to, we were not a church going family. But that was where I’d heard the song, and I liked it.
But I decidedly did not like the part that said “a wretch like me”. I stubbornly clung to the notion that I, a good person, was in no way a wretch. I closed my mouth when that part came up. What self-pitying, low self-esteem these Christians were, I’d thought.
I was so deep in my sin, of course I could not see my own depravity. But His grace abounded. Now I’m saved, and far from thinking that Christians are being pitiable doormats with no self-esteem, now, acknowledging my position before Christ is a relief. I had been comparing myself to others, and comparatively I might have been slightly nicer than the other guy, who was also a thoroughly depraved wretch by the way, but at the judgment we do not compare ourselves to other people. We must be like Christ, who is perfectly holy. So, yes, I am a wretch. I had been strutting and roaming the earth in sin, proud of my sin, doing nothing for God and happy in my pigsty of a life.
Those who will humble themselves He will lift up, but the proud, He opposes.
It bears repeating, and repeating, and repeating, just how sinful we were before salvation – yet God loved us. He loved his enemies! We were His enemy, hating Him and rejecting Him at all points. No one seeks for God. We only seek for ourselves. Yet His grace descended on each person who is and will be in heaven, plucking us up from the sinner’s nest of sin, and cleaning us with his own blood, standing us upright, and bestowing on us all the benefits of heaven as His children.
Every human is made in the image of God but only people that His grace opened their eyes to repent are His children.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
Do not let the wonder of salvation dwindle in your mind. Allow the beauty and eternal gift of His Spirit in us to dwell richly in a bed of gratitude deep within, welling up at all points to share the glory that is Jesus.
I wasn’t saved by love. The Gospel was not attractive to me. It was not made attractive to me by smiling Christians. I didn’t suddenly melt because of all the syrupy love Jesus flowed down onto me. I was saved by wrath.
This is NOT my Jesus
Glorious Jesus who was and is and is to come did not woo me to the cross. No one fulfilled my felt needs. No one befriended me and cajoled me into loving Jesus. He battered my head with a 2X4, dragging me kicking and screaming to the cross, where He made me face my sin. Once I saw my sin, I saw how ugly it is. I saw His coming wrath for it.
I repented.
THEN I loved Him. After He opened my eyes I saw all His loveliness and grace and mercy and long-suffering and patience and grief over sin and sinners. But I was not wooed, nor was I loved onto Mt Moriah. It is not true that “Jesus won’t come where He isn’t welcome”. It is not true that “Jesus won’t force Himself on anybody.” People who say that never read of Paul’s conversion!
He is sovereign God! He goes where He pleases! (Psalm 24:1). He drop-kicked Saul/Paul to the ground AND blinded him! He didn’t ASK Mary if she’d like to become pregnant and an object of ridicule and rumor the rest of her life. No, He sent an angel to TELL her how it was going to be. (Luke 1:30-37)
He isn’t wringing His hands in heaven hoping that Jane or Tom or Mary will believe in Him, and maybe they will, if He just sends the Spirit to soften the pew cushions … or energizes the preacher with a louder “WOO!” … or if the musician plays one more verse of “Just As I Am.” Maybe if He can make church “exciting” then Harry will repent and believe. No.
It was the sovereign wrath that convicted me and convinced me. It is why I love passages like this from 2 Thessalonians-
The Great Day of His Wrath, John Martin
GOD’S RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT
This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. Since it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give rest to you who are afflicted and to us as well at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, executing vengeance on those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our witness to you was believed. (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10)
Let us begin the marveling now. Marvel at a Savior who saves by His sovereign election, will, purpose, and plan! Marvel at He who is wrath and judgment and holiness and fierce anger! Be afeared of His anger over your sin. Marvel that El Shaddai… El Elyon …sent His Son to take on all anger for His elect’s sins. Marvel that He is also Jehovah Rapha, and Jehovah Jireh, the LORD that heals, the LORD will provide. Marvel at the wrath. It makes marveling at the grace all the more sweet.
the-end-time.org 